From hair-raising mountain passes to hairpin-laden slopes, these six spectacular roads take you through some of the world’s most breathtaking landscapes.
Crown Range, Aotearoa
The Crown Range Road – New Zealand’s highest main road – connects Queenstown and Wānaka at 1,121m, offering winter-driving challenges and stunning views of the Remarkables and Wakatipu Basin. It passes through historic Cardrona, home to the iconic, much-photographed Cardrona Hotel via plenty of winding, zig-zagging sections that require utmost concentration!
Outback, Australia
The Australian outback provides vast skies, ancient landscapes, Aboriginal rock art and towns with caravan parks, motels and roadhouses. Driving is stress-free with light traffic during daytime, though night driving risks kangaroo collisions. Its scale is remarkable: massive cattle stations, wedge-tailed eagles, and some of the world’s longest straight roads. Nearby run the world’s longest fences, including the 5,614km Dingo Fence and the Rabbit-Proof Fence, plus some of the world’s most idiosyncratic road signs and even trivia questions to keep drivers alert.
Petrified Forest, USA
Petrified Forest National Park in the American Southwest offers a scenic drive through colourful badlands streaked with red, orange, yellow and blue rock formations, and past fallen, petrified logs dating to the age of dinosaurs. The road winds through painted desert, petrified wood and carved rock formations, and even crosses the original, iconic Route 66.
Seven Mile Bridge, USA
Seven Mile Bridge carries Florida’s Overseas Highway across the Keys, arcing above turquoise seas with stunning panoramic views. Opened in 1982, it’s one of the world’s longest segmental bridges at 6.79 miles (10.9km) – with a 19.8m clearance for boats. The older, parallel ‘Old Seven’ bridge, once a railroad crossing, now serves pedestrians and cyclists.
Irohazaka Slope, Japan
Irohazaka (中欠反詈, ‘Iroha Slope’) is a pair of winding roads linking central Nikko to the mountainous Okunikko region, named for their 48 hairpin turns after Japan’s old 48-syllable alphabet. Built in 1954 and 1965 as toll roads (now free), the older road handles downward traffic with a waterfall viewpoint, while the newer road carries upward traffic past Akechidaira Plateau’s observation deck.
Icefields Parkway, Canada
The Icefields Parkway – Alberta’s Highway 93 – winds through Banff National Park linking Lake Louise with Jasper, and is rated one of the top drives in the world by Condé Nast Traveller. The 232km double-lane highway showcases soaring mountain peaks, icefields, wildlife, birds and vast sweeping valleys, with easily accessible roadside viewpoints en route.
